THE annual Budget merry-go-round of will he, won’t he hike fuel duty is upon us.
So here we go again in having to present the blindingly obvious to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
FairFuelUK supporters and most petrol and diesel drivers have never felt so demonised and continually punished financially as they are today.
And the news this week that filling up a car costs £2 more than it did less than a month ago only adds to the pain.
At 143.4p, petrol is 3p a litre dearer, while diesel is up 4p to £1.52 due to oil price rises and Houthi attacks on fuel tankers in the Red Sea.
Motorists want to be recognised as the commercial and social heartbeat of the economy, not to be incessantly blamed for all the world’s climate and health calamities, allegedly all down to car emissions.
And most certainly The Sun’s mailbag shows they are fed up of habitually being treated as cash cows.
Instead, they finally want it recognised that road transport drives the economy, community interaction and social cohesion.
Every year since 2011, FairFuelUK has shown through commissioned independent economic analysis that cutting costs at the pump for drivers lowers inflation, increases consumer spending, encourages business investment, and generates more GDP growth.
Our latest annual road-user pre-budget opinion poll has just been completed by 81,244 people.
The results show the Chancellor cannot be under any illusion from our latest poll that fuel duty MUST be cut.
Almost a third — 32 per cent — want the fuel duty freeze to continue but two thirds — 64 per cent — want it slashed.
Around nine out of ten taxi drivers — 97 per cent, to be exact — and 72 per cent of van drivers want this regressive tax to be cut, too.
And seven out of ten of those calling for a reduction in fuel duty want it to be cut by as much as 20p per litre in the Budget on March 6.
But sadly, certain smug EV drivers, plus a very small minority of militant cyclists, who pay no road tax, want fuel duty to be significantly increased.
It’s time to heal this unfair division and make all road users contribute to a fair and equal tax regime.
The huge cost of repairing potholes comes to mind. Drivers of EVs and cyclists should be paying more into the Exchequer.
We need to grow the economy to pay for public services, and supporting motorists is one of the keys to unlocking this growth.
But the Office of Budget Inaccuracy — sorry, Responsibility — disagrees.
Its bean counters have decided that the recent two per cent cut to National Insurance is only sustainable if there is an increase in fuel tax in the Budget.
Yet again the spectre of a 5p hike in duty is hanging over motorists this year.
Deep down, the Treasury knows that motorists are a major solution to alleviating the chronic cost of living crisis.
And they also vote!
So I want the Government to put two fingers up to the OBR and listen to motorists, white van man, black cab drivers and truckers, and go big this time, and deliver a 20 pence cut in fuel duty on March 6.
Rishi Sunak is always saying we must lead the world on various political issues. So why not lead the way on having the lowest driving tax economy?
Of course, no Chancellor will have the cajónes to make such a sizeable reduction because of emotive ill-informed pressure from the eco-zealots.
But if a 20p cut in fuel duty was enacted — giving an £11 boost to consumer spending from every family car fill-up — it would put billions back into the economy.
I challenge Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to try it for six months before the autumn general election and measure its undoubted positive impact to the economy and at the ballot box.
What a positive low-taxation legacy he would leave for the current beleaguered Tory party destined to the opposition benches.
There is no doubt that, if in power, Labour’s anti-driver Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves will reverse such a tax cut and increase this punitive and regressive levy.
A motorist-friendly Budget may just turn millions of wavering voters back to the Tories or at least stave off a predicted humiliating defeat at the ballot box.
On Monday, I will be delivering a 120,000-signature petition to 10 Downing Street with long-time FairFuelUK- supporting MPs calling for a fuel duty cut. More than 140 MPs have openly supported the motorist and our campaign since 2010.
Several are now ministers and sit on the Cabinet. These MPs have been resolute in their support for FairFuelUK and the Sun’s Keep It Down campaign. They, along with hundreds of other MPs, get it — that the motorist is indeed the commercial heartbeat of any economy.
So, Prime Minister and Chancellor, please give drivers a break, recognise they already pay way too much in charges and taxes, and do what you know is financially right — and cut fuel duty BIG
